From Earthfiles.com
http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=750&category=Environment
(click link for full details - headlines below with brief description)
What Is Happening to Birds?
Updated With Viewer Reports
© 2004 by Linda Moulton Howe
July 22, 2004 Stockholm, Sweden - Lloyd Jones reporting for Australia's Herald Sun in Stockholm began a dispatch today:
"Homing pigeons vanish during race. Organisers of a race for homing pigeons were still scratching their heads in wonder today after about 1500 of the birds, famous for their ability to find their way home, went missing during the contest."
29,000 American White Pelicans Disappear
On May 28, 2004, the Bismarck, North Dakota office of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service began hearing that American White Pelicans were disappearing from the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge north of Medina, North Dakota. Two and a half weeks later, 29,000 pelicans were gone without a trace.
Dying Flamingoes and Brown Pelicans
On July 15, 2004, the director general of Tanzania, Afria's National Parks (Tanapa), Gerald Bigurube reported: "The death of more than 10,000 flamingoes in Lake Manyara is a real tragedy and we are still puzzled with the cause and nature of the mysterious disease that has struck these beautiful creatures."
England's Bird Population Declines 33% in 25 Years
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Canadian Wildlife Service reported this month that the duck population in the United States and Canada has dropped 11 percent in one year, largely linked to drought that has dried up water in duck breeding grounds.
The declines pinpointed by the report are most alarming in intensive farming countries such as the UK, where, between 1970 and 1999, skylark numbers declined by 52 per cent, the yellowhammer by 53 per cent and the corn bunting by 88 per cent.
Peace - Anna
Starmail - 25. Jul, 23:52
Editorial: Business of war / How much of the Iraq mission is about profit?
Ever since military suppliers gouged the nascent American government on gunpowder and uniforms during the Revolutionary War, this nation has had an uncomfortable relationship with businessmen who profit excessively from conflict...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04206/350956.stm
From Information Clearing House
Starmail - 25. Jul, 23:15
The authors of this 300-page whitewash say they found no 'systemic' problem - even though there were 94 documented cases of prisoner abuse, including some 40 deaths, 20 of them homicides...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1161215.htm
From Information Clearing House
Starmail - 25. Jul, 23:07
Viele Menschen wollen mit dem Handy telefonieren, möchten aber selber keine Sender in ihrer Nähe haben. Ohne Sender funktionieren jedoch die Handys nicht. Wer also den Sender vom eigenen Haus weg haben will, handelt nach dem St. Florians-Prinzip, denn dann bekommen den für das Handy zwingend notwendigen Sender eben andere. Und ist der Handynutzer unterwegs, so braucht er zusätzlich noch viele weitere Sender entlang seines Weges, mit denen auch wieder andere belastet werden.
Oft hört man von Mastengegnern das Argument, sie würden ihr Handy unbedingt brauchen. Irgendeinen “wichtigen Grund“ werden aber auch alle anderen Millionen Menschen haben und damit auch den Anspruch auf ein Handy. Also was tun?
Es ist wohl klar, dass ein Mastengegner konsequenterweise auch sein eigenes Verhalten überdenken sollte. Denn die Handynutzer sorgen selbst dafür, dass immer mehr Masten gebaut werden müssen.
Wir sehen aus diesen Ausführungen, dass es nicht möglich ist, ein Mobilfunknetz mit der zur Zeit noch erlaubten Technologie aufzubauen und gleichzeitig den Gesundheitsschutz für die Menschen zu sichern.
Bei der heute verwendeten Technologie wird bewusst eine unübersehbare Schädigung der Volksgesundheit in Kauf genommen.
Wir müssen sicherstellen, dass unsere Gesundheit wieder zum höchsten Gut wird.
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/mobilfunksender_raus_aus_reinen_wohngebieten.rtf
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Antennen schauen uns an
Leserbrief aus Bamberg
Antennen schauen uns an
Weihnachten droht und schon laufen die Mobilfunkbetreiber und Handyhersteller auf "Hochform" auf: Da werden Kinder und Jugendliche beinahe genötigt ihren Eltern zu bearbeiten, Verträge zu unterzeichnen, gut mit Lebkuchen gelockt - wie im Märchen (so geschehen Anfang dieser Woche von T-Mobil am Bahnhofsvorplatz!), da ziehe ich aus meinem Briefkasten täglich 1-2 Angebote zur Anwendung dieser Technik, egal, ob W-Lan-Laptops oder sogenannte Wichtigtuer-Händis, und dies auf Hochglanzpapier. Nein, es können die Druckkosten der Hersteller nicht hoch genug sein, denn die Suchtbindung, auch Kundenbindung genannt, bringt langfristig einen Supergewinn.
Leider muss man die Leute immer wieder erinnern: jedes Handy - und sei es noch so selten benutzt - braucht eine Ketten von Mobilfunkantennen. Schauen Sie sich in Ihrer Nachbarschaft um: irgendwo steht im Umkreis von 500 bis 1000 Metern eine größere oder auch eine kleinere Antenne auf den Dächern oder an Fassaden. Und wer aus seinem Fenster Blickkontakt zu solchen Antennen hat, möge sich schon mal zum Messen der Wohnräume melden.....dafür dürfte der Empfang sehr gut sein.
Engagierte Mitmenschen kämpfen in der Stadt und Landkreis gegen Antennenmasten und Dachantennen, gegen W-Lan in Schulen und Betrieben, - und sie haben Gründe dafür, die in der gesundheitlichen Vorsorge begründet liegen.
Wo gibt es noch echte Rückratbesitzer? Oder haben auch Sie schon Minderwertigkeitskomplexe, wenn sie nicht alles haben, was neu ist? Gegen den Strom schwimmen ist etwas mühsam, aber ungemein befreiend.
Mein Tipp: Keine Handys kaufen und schenken - sondern Rückrat bewahren !
Karin Z.
Aus: Elektrosmognews vom 12.12.2004
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Jeder hat ein Handy, keiner will Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/325535/
Handys und der Strahlungswahnsinn
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/356956/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Jeder+will+ein+Handy%2C+keiner+will+eine+Antenne
Starmail - 25. Jul, 22:55
Teaching Torture: Congress Quietly Keeps
by Doug Ireland
School of the Americas Alive
Remember how congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle deplored the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib as "un-American"? Last Thursday, however, the House quietly passed a renewed appropriation that keeps open the U.S.'s most infamous torture-teaching institution, known as the School of the Americas (SOA), where the illegal physical and psychological abuse of prisoners of the kind the world condemned at Abu Ghraib and worse has been routinely taught for years....
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/Ireland0724.htm
Starmail - 25. Jul, 22:43
by Michael Moore
If you can't get through this list without wanting to throw up, I'll understand. But pass it around anyway. This is the nail in the Iraq War's coffin for any sane, thinking individual, regardless of their political stripe. (Thanks to Tom Paine.com and the Center for American Progress.)
To get some perspective, here are some real-life comparisons about what $87 billion means:
$87 Billion is more than the combined total of all State budget deficits in the United States. The Bush administration proposed absolutely zero funds to help states deal with these deficits, despite the fact that their tax cuts drove down state revenues. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities].
$87 Billion is enough to pay the 3.3 million people who have lost jobs under George W. Bush $26,363.00 each! The unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress at the beginning of this year provides zero benefits to workers who exhausted their regular, state unemployment benefits and cannot find work [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities].
$87 Billion is more than double the total amount the government spends on Homeland Security. The U.S. spends about $36 billion on homeland security. Yet, Sen. Warren Rudman (R- N.H.) wrote, America will fall approximately $98.4 billion short of meeting critical emergency responder needs for homeland security without a funding increase. [Source: Council on Foreign Relations].
$87 Billion is 87 times the amount the Federal Government spends on After School Programs. George W. Bush proposed a budget that reduces the $1 billion for after-school programs to $600 million cutting off about 475,000 children from the program. [Source: The Republican-dominated House Appropriations Committee].
$87 Billion is more that 10 times what the Government spends on all environmental Protection. The Bush administration requested just $7.6 billion for the entire Environmental Protection Agency. This included a 32 percent cut to water quality grants, a 6 percent reduction in enforcement staff, and a 50 percent cut to land acquisition and conservation. [Source: Natural Resources Defense Council].
There you go. In black and white. A few million of you will receive this letter. Please share it. I, like you, do not want to see another approval rating over 50 percent.
Yours, Michael Moore Filmmaker
Informant: Gary
Starmail - 25. Jul, 22:38
Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked, the Government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, said last week.
He said the Earth was entering the "first hot period" for 60 million years, when there was no ice on the planet and "the rest of the globe could not sustain human life". The warning - one of the starkest delivered by a top scientist - comes as ministers decide next week whether to weaken measures to cut the pollution that causes climate change, even though Tony Blair last week described the situation as "very, very critical indeed".
http://www.g0lem.net/PhpWiki/index.php/AbruptClimateChange
Starmail - 25. Jul, 22:34
I have never seen such flagrant intentional disregard for international law and order as has been demonstrated by George W. Bush and his immunity comes from incontestable military power. Even the protests of the millions of people around the world who objected to George Bush's unethical wars have been ignored. The blowback from this administration is an anti-Americanism which has not been greater since the ugly American image during the Vietnam war.
In three separate interviews a U.S. Special Operations Command Colonel admitted that the U.S. and Great Britain fired 500 tons of DU munitions into Iraq. He has also informed me that the GBU-28 BLU 113 Penetrator Bunker Buster 5000 pound bomb contains DU in the warhead. Until now, as far as I know, the materials used to make the warhead of the GBU-28 have remained shrouded in mystery. He admitted that privately the Pentagon has acknowledged the health hazards of DU for years. . .
http://pnews.org/vortal/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=2
Starmail - 25. Jul, 22:30
From: Les Jamieson
Sibel Edmonds is the FBI whistleblower who personally saw documents with specific warnings of the 9/11 attacks. She is currently under a gag order by John Ashcroft which invoked "State Secrets" powers, saying that what she has to reveal would jeopardize our national security. On the contrary, keeping her silent is jeopardizing our national security in favor of protecting a few powerful people as well as relationships with a few countries. Her lawsuit claiming the gag order is unconstitutional was recently thrown out with no explanation. She was interviewed by the Commission, and received support from Senators Leahy and Grassley who lobbied on her behalf to have her testimony taken seriously. She was on CBS's 60 Minutes, and has been written about extensively, although mostly in the foreign press.
Below is Sibel's reaction to the 9/11 Report released this past week. The absence of detail regarding her testimony highlights just one area of incompleteness of the report, which Richard Clarke calls "toothless", and should elicit grave doubts of its legitimacy. Pass it on...
Puzzled & Curious
By Sibel Edmonds
July 23, 2004
The countdown is finally over, and a five hundred sixty seven-page Commission report is out. According to the Commission Chairman, they have seen 'every single document' and have interviewed 'every single relevant witness and authority'. According to all Commission members, this report should be considered a resounding success, since it encompasses all information relevant to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and very little, almost none, has been redacted, classified, or glossed over. Yet we have heard no one screaming 'classification', 'sensitive diplomatic relations', 'highly sensitive foreign business relations', or 'national security implications.' This is highly puzzling and curious.
This puzzles me, considering that every investigation by the Congress and the IG into my issues, every report involving my already confirmed allegations involving serious lapses within the FBI, and every legal procedure and due process dealing with my case alone, has been blocked, gagged, entirely classified, and stopped. It is extremely curious that while investigations and reports on one case alone has created so much havoc, a massive investigation and a report involving all intelligence agencies and other government bodies, including the State Department, has evoked zero objections based on 'sensitive foreign relations', 'highly classified intelligence matters', and/or 'ongoing intelligence investigations.' I am highly puzzled and curious.
This puzzles me, knowing the detailed information, I, myself, provided to the commission during a three and a half hour tape-recorded briefing; yet, finding only one footnote (footnote 25) briefly stating insufficient translation capability within the Bureau. It is highly curious that the report mentions nothing regarding the 'intentionally blocked translations by certain Middle Eastern Translators, who also breached FBI security, as confirmed by the Senate Judiciary'; nothing regarding 'adamant resistance to investigations of certain terrorist and criminal activities; refusing to transfer them to Counterterrorism from existing counterintelligence investigations, solely based on the vague notion of protecting certain foreign relations'; nothing regarding 'continued efforts to cover up certain highly specific information received prior to September 11, even now, years after 9/11,'; or nothing regarding 'knowingly allowing certain individuals, directly or indirectly related to terrorist activities, to leave the United States months after 9/11, without any interrogation, and per the State Department's request.' I am highly puzzled and curious.
This puzzles me, having first hand knowledge of on going intelligence received and processed by the FBI since 1997, which contained specific information implicating certain high level government and elected officials in criminal activities directly and indirectly related to terrorist money laundering, narcotics, and illegal arms sales. It is highly curious that the report omitted all this information, knowing that others in the Congress have been briefed on these issues, having been given the names of targets involved, Special Agents, translators, field offices, and files. I am highly puzzled and curious.
After the many public hearings 'shows', where the Commissioners very skillfully played their 'good cop' 'bad cop' routine, and displayed their life-long mastery of the political art of saying, but not saying, and asking, but not asking, all parties and all agencies have readily accepted this report. The President apparently considered the report 'rosy' and appropriately symbolized its presentation in his 'rose garden.' The previous administration sighed with relief, having scored a negative 4, compared to the current administration's negative 6, in the blame game. The notorious Attorney General, John Ashcroft, left his over-secrecy and classification guns in their holsters. It is highly puzzling and curious to see that this report ended up being blessed by all those responsible for our nation's security and interests, which were severely violated on September 11. I, for one, am highly puzzled and curious, how about you?
Sibel
Informant: Martin Greenhut
Starmail - 25. Jul, 08:39